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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23785819">Renegade - Volume One: Built For Sin</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/marshmallowxdrugs/pseuds/marshmallowxdrugs'>marshmallowxdrugs</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Renegade [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Academy, Altered Mental States, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Anal Sex, Angels, Crossroads Deals &amp; Demons, Demons, Demons Are Assholes, Fallen Angels, Guardian Angels, Half-Vampires, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Tagging, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Mental Institutions, Multi, Nephilim, Oral Sex, Public Sex, References to Drugs, Rough Sex, Seelie Court, Sexuality, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, Unseelie Court, Vampires</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:42:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,783</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23785819</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/marshmallowxdrugs/pseuds/marshmallowxdrugs</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Microphone check 1, 2...<br/>Just kidding, I'm not going to start singing or anything. I just thought it would be a funny way to start this story, because the God honest truth is that I have no idea how to write this without anyone thinking that I’m crazy. Not that anybody will ever read it. I’ve never had that much fondness for diaries, but when you’re stuck in a pit of despair with nothing but the tormented souls of your fellow humans to keep you company, you can’t be choosy.<br/>So, where to start, where to start ….</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Original Female Character/Original Female Character, Original Female Character/Original Male Character, Original Male Character/Original Male Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Renegade [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1713628</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Nephilim vs Gregori. Begin!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Oky, so this is an original work that i have started about ten years ago and still haven't finished. I have recently started getting closer to actually writing it for real so i decided to post it and all be damned. </p><p>**vague mention of underage sexual abuse</p><p>Kay, I'm gonna continue writing now, so enjoy.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Living in New York isn’t easy. Let there never be said I don't try to educate people. It’s expensive, the roads are rubbish and the amount of Starbucks Barbie dolls with their lattes and purse dogs is staggering. </p><p>However, living in this big city as the protegee of a very wealthy, very dangerous young woman had its perks. No matter how much I tried to be normal, I never could. You can’t be normal when you attend secret galas with the most influential people in the country.</p><p>But my life wasn’t always like that. It wasn’t always champagne, money and red mini dresses. It was a lot of pain, too.</p><p>My earliest memory is waking up in a creaky bed when I was about three years old. I called out for my mom even though in the back of my head I knew I didn't have one. I got slapped for that. Nobody raised their voice in the orphanage. Not even if you had a nightmare. That was the first rule I learned, along with ‘don’t ask/don’t tell’ and nobody cares if you said no, it will still happen. You’re nobody when you’re in there. Just another lost soul in the maze of the world’s sins.</p><p>By the time I was eight, I had been in three orphanages, adopted by four foster families and spent a cumulated year on the streets, running from the people who tried to put me back in those hell holes. Nobody kept me for too long; They would always want me, the pretty girl with wide, brown-purple eyes and long, shiny, black hair, but eventually they would see I was too weird, too different. I never understood why that was bad. Why do people always strive to be the same? I took pride in my uniqueness, my way of separating myself from the flock and following my path. And all was well until I saw her.</p><p>She was standing next to a tree, dressed in a pretty blue dress, with her long, blonde hair flowing in the wind. She was my age, maybe a few months older and when she smiled at me, my whole world lit up. Her name was Allegra and she was my sun. But she wasn’t real. A friend of mine once saw me waving at her, and he asked who I was waving at. When I pointed at her, he didn’t see her. It crushed me. Up until then I managed to get out of my torturous life with my mind still pretty intact. That’s when I knew I was doomed to be another statistic. Another name on a piece of paper as part of some student’s bachelor degree. My uniqueness was gone. Vanished like smoke.</p><p>Allegra was the only thing that made the next two years bearable. My fifth foster home was nice enough to not make me want to run away right from the beginning, but as much as they tried, I still wasn’t theirs. Their daughter made my life a living hell and talking to Allegra was the only thing that kept me sane. As weird as that sounds. </p><p>And then, just like she appeared out of nowhere, she suddenly disappeared from my life one day and never returned. I cried for a few days. I felt like I had just gone through my first break up. It was harsh. </p><p>Until three months ago, when she popped back up to say hello.</p><p>“Allie?” I whispered when I got out of the shower and I saw her perched on the edge of my bed. She was about seventeen then, still dressed in the same blue dress, with the same blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. She smiled at me.</p><p>“Hello, Scarlet.”</p><p>I blinked at her, forgetting for a moment that I only had my underwear on until I saw her blush and try to look away. She was just as beautiful as the first time I saw her when we were only eight. Her eyes looked up at me and they were shining, like two gray diamonds in the sunlight. “Hey..” I said, not really knowing what to say. How does one greet a hallucination they had when they were prepubescent?</p><p>“How have you been?”</p><p>“Oh, we are not doing this. Do not act as if you are a long lost friend that has returned to the city and we meet again in a coffee shop.'' I scolded her. “You were gone for good. I finally thought I was getting better. I thought the meds were helping.”</p><p>“You’re off them.” Allegra said, raising an eyebrow.</p><p>I scoffed. “They made me gain weight! Whatever, not important. Even after I stopped taking them, you still didn’t appear, so I thought I was fine.”</p><p>“You are fine, Scarlet. I promise. I came back to warn you.”</p><p>“About what?”</p><p>“You’re about to find out. I’d say about half an hour, give or take the traffic.” she smiled, and then she disappeared, leaving me in a state of complete confusion. I put on my clothes mechanically and went down the stairs to see if Rose needed my help cleaning up. She threw yet another party the night before and the remnants were clear in the wine stains on the sofa, the food on the floor and the glasses and various undergarments littering the entire house.</p><p>Rose… Rose was weird. She found me when I was twelve and after I ran away again. I was walking down the street in a dodgy neighbourhood and when her car slowed next to me I thought she mistook me for a prostitute. I was considering whether to clarify her on the subject or not when her window rolled down and she motioned for me to stop. She was about twenty, beautiful and rich. She offered to take me out for ice cream. She said she was bored and wanted some company that didn’t come in the form of coworkers or clients. We went to a gelateria and we ate ice cream and talked. After everything was done, she offered me a job. She would provide me with money, food, a place to live in, education and all I had to do in return was entertain her clients in whatever manner they thought pleasing. I took the deal. </p><p>“You need me to help with something?’ I yelled as I went in the kitchen. Rose was busy trying to scrub a pot.</p><p>“No, love. Enjoy your last day of freedom before school starts. I made this mess possible, I'll clean it.” she said, gesturing with the pot she was cleaning at the rest of the house and sending drops of soap and water all over the floor. </p><p>I grinned. “Fine, don’t say I didn't try.” I warned her. She laughed. I went back into the living room, trying to avoid squashing the food on the floor until Rose vacuumed and sat down to watch some TV. Allegra’s words were on repeat in my head, annoying the hell out of me. What did she mean by ‘i’m about to find out’? My brain kept trying to find a socially acceptable and reasonable explanation for what she was. Ghosts weren’t real and scientifically inaccurate. I didn’t believe in astral projections and a hallucination was also not real. So what the hell was she and why did she come to me in the first place? Was I going crazy? It wasn’t something that hard to imagine considering my childhood, but I managed to get out semi okay from everything and I’d like to continue that way.</p><p>I flipped through the channels trying to find something mildly interesting and settled on a documentary about the pyramids. I loved ancient civilizations and everything to do with that. I was probably a genius when it came to useless mythology trivia that nobody but me cared about. </p><p>And then it happened. About half an hour into my documentary watching, just like a sign from Heaven that my peace must be disturbed as it was working against the natural order of things, our front door blew up and a very disheveled Allegra ran inside backwards holding a bow and cradling her left arm. She was bleeding from the left side of her head and her hair was streaked with dirt and blood. She looked wild. Rose dropped whatever she was holding and was outside the kitchen and into the living room before the thing had hit the floor and right as easiest the tallest man that I have seen walked in. He was at least six feet seven, with medium length blonde hair and a chest plate that reminded me of Camelot knights. He was also wielding a wicked sword. His face was weirdly handsome though, with blue eyes and pink lips. He looked like he was modeling some weird couture fashion that nobody understood but everyone bought because it was trendy. </p><p>“Menelaus!” Rose yelled and the man looked past Allegra and saw my adoptive mommy for the first time since he entered. His face broke into a smile.</p><p>“Rosalind. You are well.” Of course he had a British accent. Why not? All crazy people in my life had British accents. Me included. </p><p>Rose rolled her eyes. “No, thanks to you. We had a deal, Menelaus. You take her when I say you take her. What happened to that?”</p><p>Menelaus shrugged. “Plans change, my darling. You are no longer my employer.”</p><p>Rose scoffed. “She finally pulled you, then? Lilith always knew how to fool the weak ones.”</p><p>Menelaus snarled. Suddenly he wasn’t so handsome anymore. His eyes flashed yellow. I rubbed my own thinking I imagined it. “I am not a weak, foolish woman. I am merely envisioning the outcome of this silly game you and Lilith are playing. And you’re not among the winners. You don’t stand a chance.”</p><p>“Is that why Lilith wants her?” Allegra spoke for the first time. She had the same voice as in my hallucinations, but it was weaker now and trembled slightly. She was also paler. Who knew how much blood she lost already? Can ghosts even lose blood? “Because she’s so hard to defeat? No, because she’s scared and she can’t let someone like Ember out free.”</p><p>“Allegra…” Rose warned.</p><p>Allegra’s eyes flashed towards me. “Hi, Scarlet. Nice to finally see you in real life.” I’m sure my mouth must have been an open bear trap by now with how wide it was. There were so many things happening at once and I did not understand one of them. Who was Menelaus? Apart from the ancient king. How did Allegra know Rose? And the most important one … HOW WAS ALLEGRA REAL?</p><p>“I have so many questions right now, but it’s not the time because you’re about to be cut in two.” I casually said. I had noticed out of the corner of my eye that, while Allie and Rose were talking to me, Menelaus was slowly gaining ground on Allegra and raising his arm. Allegra ducked just in time to avoid being sliced like a tomato. I was grateful for that. She had so many questions to answer. Dead people don’t talk. I think. I was so confused right then. </p><p>“Rose!” Allegra yelled while fighting off Menelaus. Rose nodded once and then ran towards me.</p><p>“Come on. You have to go.”</p><p>“What in the bloody hell is happening?” </p><p>She dragged me towards our basement, kicking the door open and picking up a black duffel bag that was stashed under a chair. The door closed behind us just as all the windows in the house shattered. I screamed then, terrified, clinging to Rose as if she were my personal safety net. She pushed the bag in my arms and dragged me outside through the backdoor. “You need to leave. Now. Follow the emergency escape plan I taught you.”</p><p>“What? I don’t … Rose.” I yelled, feeling slightly numb as shock set in. She looked into my eyes and sighed.</p><p>“Please. Everything will be explained, but for now, please just leave. You’re not safe here.” She kissed me on the cheek and gave me a side hug.. “Go. I’ll see you again.”</p><p>She pushed me outside and shut the door behind me. I peeked behind a corner and saw that our front porch was practically non-existent. There was a huge hole where our stairs used to be and the railings were ashes. Our swing was in pieces and there was a golden, glittery substance everywhere. </p><p>I headed down the street, nervously looking around me for suspicious people and also kind of half wondering how there are no police sirens or neighbors</p><p>walking around asking about the noise. When I threw a summer party and the music was just a tiny bit louder than normal five of my neighbors showed up at my door in the middle of the night yelling at me to turn it down but when our entire front porch gets blown to bits by a gigantic reincarnation of the Minotaur everybody’s fine with it. I hate society.</p><p>The bus station was pretty close to where I lived so I ducked into one of those ancient phone boots that looked right out of Dr. Who and changed into a more appropriate escaping outfit consisting of black shorts and a black top and sat down on the bench waiting for my bus. Or for a lighting to hit me and put me out of misery. Not necessarily in that order.</p><p>Allegra joined me about five minutes later. She was also changed and her head gash was hidden underneath a bandana. “Before you start asking, no, I’m not a ghost that has been brought back to life and neither are you suffering from a full blown psychosis. Everything has an answer and you will find out very soon.”</p><p>“Everybody keeps saying that and I'm so tired of it!” I yelled standing up. I faced her. “My whole life i’ve been told there’s a reason for everything and I will find it at the right time, but I never did. Nobody ever explained why I'm different, or where my parents are or what happened. Nobody cared. And now there’s new things going on that, again, are a mystery to me and I'm sick of it. I’m sick of being kept in the dark. I want answers and I want them right this bloody second.”</p><p>“Okay, I feel like there are bigger things here that you definitely need to address with a psychologist and we will come back to that, but right now I need you to shut up and stay low because our bus is coming and we have to leave New York as fast as we can. Kapeesh?”</p><p>I sighed and nodded. Even I know when to back out from a fight.</p><p> </p><p>Part of Rose’s business involved a lot of travelling and therefore, a few years ago she acquired a very small, weaponized military observation aeroplane. It was very light, had the ability to render itself invisible to any radar and had actual heat missiles. It was awesome. We both had access to it and I could take it whenever I wanted. Once we were at the airport, I took Allegra by the hand and led her through a series of biometric locks until we reached a private, hidden hangar that was used to store Rose’s plane. I had called ahead while we were in the bus to make sure the pilot had the plane ready. Both Rose and I knew the basics of flying and could technically handle it in an emergency, but considering I was questioning my sanity,  I didn’t want to risk it. Better safe than sorry. </p><p>We reached the plane at the same time as our pilot was coming out of the airport, putting on his jacket with one hand and holding on his sandwich with the other. He took one look at us and ushered us in, hurrying to start the aircraft. “Where’s Rose?” he asked, putting on his headphones to clear the way for him to fly. </p><p>“Detained.” Allegra answered. “Fly us to these coordinates, please.”</p><p>The pilot took the piece of paper that Allegra handed to him and stared at it for a good minute before he turned towards her with wide eyes. “Girl, this takes us straight into the Bermuda Triangle. You insane?” he snapped.</p><p>“The place we need to go doesn’t have actual coordinates because it keeps moving, but it’s close to the Triangle. We won’t go in.” Allegra grinned, but it wasn’t a very reassuring grin. “Don’t worry captain, you won’t die today.” Funny, I thought. She didn’t say anything about us not dying today.</p><p>“Fine, but if something happens, I’m going full on Poltergeist on your asses.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. interlude. when nature sleeps and stars are mute</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“Scarlet, let me tell you the story of this castle. You look like a girl who enjoys a good horror story.” Scarlet just smiled. </p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Miss Ariadne? Miss Ariadne?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Clarisse, sorry. I was just thinking about the ball. I never quite fancied balls and now that one is given strictly in my honor, I must say, I am very worried. I am not exactly your typical princess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Clarisse, the housekeeper, smiled. “Yes, you are not. But Molokai is not a typical island and we are not typical people. You’ll do just fine. You’ve been in the public eye your whole life. This will be nothing different. Just remember. Don’t let them know,”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What I am.” Ariadne interjected completing the phrase that her mother drilled into her head ever since she was old enough to understand it. Don’t let them know what you are, Ariadne, or they’ll come for you. Easier said than done. This wasn’t a freaking Disney movie. Elsa’s secrets were a piece of cake compared to Ariadne’s.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A debutante ball, in their world, was the moment when she was officially announced to the world as a princess. Also, available for marriage, childbirth and in stores nearby. She hated it. She hated the notion of some old, sleazy, Council men and women deciding her future for her. She had a perfectly capable head on her shoulders that was perfectly capable of deciding what kind of future she deserved to have. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In a way, Ariadne did feel silly complaining since most girls would probably sow off limbs to attend as many balls as she had. But when you are forced to go to each and every one of them because of who you are, it loses its appeal. Plus those dresses? A straight jacket would be more comfortable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know what to tell you, Johnathan.” her mother barged in without knocking as usual, carrying a stack of papers. She shooed away her caretaker and motioned for Ariadne to climb down the podium. She took off her dress as quickly as she could considering she was neatly drowning in purple silk and put on a short, sky blue robe, joining her mother at her desk. She was sorting through something that looked like police files. “Look, I get it and I agree with you, but I can’t just pull people that don’t exist out of my ass. That seat will remain empty unless we find Seraphine’s heir, if she even has one or the Council unanimously decides to name someone. And we both know those losers can’t even decide whether or not to turn the AC on.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne rolled her eyes at her mother’s snappy tone. “If we can prove Seraphine is dead, then the family clause falls and you can put whoever you want.” Johnathan was saying. One of the few perks of being a vampire. Very good hearing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seraphine is not dead. Even with what’s happening, we all know that. That plan has gone to shit the moment you uttered it aloud. Other ideas?” the princess interjected. Johnathan was a saint and a sweetheart, but when it came up to originality, he didn’t really bring much to the table. “And, wait a second, why exactly is this a problem now? That seat has been empty for the last sixteen years and nobody cared.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because, darling Ariadne, with the recent attacks, people are putting more and more pressure on the Council to take some more extreme measures to ensure it doesn’t happen again. The last sixteen years have been probably the most peaceful we’ve ever had and now that actual decisions need to be made the four-four split worries the Council. They need the ninth person. And we need that ninth person to be on the royal side. Without enough support they can and will overthrow your mother. You know they never liked her on the throne.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alysse sighed. “And then there’s the Seelies.” she added, almost as if she wished she hadn’t. The Seelie community was mostly based in Ireland, but some of them stayed on the island, especially the families of the ones that were in school. And they were ruthless. Most of the people saw them as neutral, being the children of both demons and angels, but they were nothing of the sort. Ariadne had but a few interactions with the Seelies and she didn’t really need any more. They were masters at deceit, due to the fact they could not lie and they followed only their own interest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now, as you probably assume, the Council has a candidate in mind for the seat. Temporarily, of course.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course. Who?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Theo Richards.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alysse saw red. “Absolutely not. I am not putting an </span>
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubus">
    <span>incubus</span>
  </a>
  <span> on the Council. Are they actually as stupid as I thought they were?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, Alysse, they are not. Unlike you, they are thinking about the bigger picture. And you should too. Theo’s on our side. He hates Lilith, he’s Ari’s teacher and he’s notoriously powerful. It will give us an edge over the Council and if anyone is ever against a ruling, he’ll take care of it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you even hear yourself? That’s not how I want to rule, Johnathan. I’m not using deception to subdue my people.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look, “ Ariadne inteveened, before Alysse got mad and revealed the real reason Theo couldn’t be on the Council, “Theo is a teacher, true. Which means his first responsibility is towards his students. He won’t be able to just drop everything and go wherever the Council needs him at the drop of a hat. Just trust me on that. Theo Richards is not a good match. We’ll find someone else. I promise.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I hate this. I really hate this.” Ariadne complained for about the fifteenth time, letting her head fall on her boyfriend’s shoulder. Orion smiled and patted her back, slipping a hand around her waist. He kissed her temple. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just two more hours, baby.” he whispered in her ear, sending soft shivers down her spine. She turned her face into her neck, rubbing her nose on his pulse vein. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mkay. I can do this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my God, Ariadne!!” yelled a shrill voice behind her. She turned around and peeked behind Orion’s curls to see Nicole, a classmate of her and self proclaimed rich bitch advancing quickly towards her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t do this.” Ariadne whispered, more amused, than angry. Nicole was a pest, but she was a useful pest. She was Avalon’s gossip queen which also gave her the power to stop all gossip altogether. And for some reason, she was Orion’s ex. Ariadne could not wrap her head around the idea that Orion dated someone so despicable as Nicole.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How are you, girl? It’s been ages.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Not nearly long enough, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Ariadne thought. “I’m fine. Yeah, I'm preparing for school. Can’t believe the summer’s over already.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know, it was gone in a flash. By the way, did you know Theo was supposed to go on the Council? And he refused. Talk about scandal. Any scoop you want me to keep hidden?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nope. Go crazy.” Ariadne told her. Nicole squealed and hugged Ariadne then scurried off to probably start off the third World War or something. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you sure about that, baby? Nicole’s crazy, but she’s not stupid.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Trust me, Orion, nothing she can come up with is anywhere near close to the real thing.” Ariadne assured him. She stood up, motioned for her mother and straightened her dress. “Let’s go take those pictures before everyone is too drunk and frisky to have them come out okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Still feeling bad about this ball?” Orion asked her, his hands dropping down to where her ball gown had a long slit. One hand slipped inside and touched the inner part of her thigh. Ariadne wasn’t the type with a high libido, but Orion always knew what buttons to push to get her in the mood. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Careful, wolf.” Ariadne purred in Orion’s ear. “I will tie you down, don’t challenge me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rawr.” Orion answered, grinning and winked at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For once, Ariadne actually felt like this ball was getting manageable. It was why she loved Orion. He calmed her down when she needed to be calm and could always read her emotions almost as well as a </span>
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succubus">
    <span>succubus</span>
  </a>
  <span>. She knew they would eventually end up breaking up, but she wanted to keep him for as long as she could.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The door burst open as soon as they were finished with their pictures and two girls ran inside, both dressed in black shorts and tops and looking dishevelled. The blond one looked around until she spotted Ariadne, then ran up to her. “Clear out the room. Now.” she told her. Ariadne blinked twice, looking a bit out of place as she tried to figure out why her cousin looked like she had been through the wheels of a tank, then nodded and clapped her hands twice. Her compulsion powers were probably what she loved most about being a vampire. Every set of eyes, except for the new girl, her mother, Allegra and Orion turned towards her. She blinked once, leaned her head slightly to the left and smiled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Everyone, please vacate the chamber. You are all excused. The party was a renowned success and nothing else happened.” she announced. She clapped again and everyone started walking out as if suddenly everyone realized they had better things to do than to be there. Ariadne looked at the new girl that Allegra quite literally dragged in and saw her watching the hand movements that Ariadne was making. The clapping was a way for Ariadne to enforce her words. Just like witches for instance needed to do certain hand gestures to help focus their power, so did she. And everyone for that matter. They weren’t skilled enough yet to do it without them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually everyone cleared out and only Ariadne, Allegra, Orion, her mother and the new girl remained. “Explain.” Alysse said, turning towards Allegra. The blonde was also watching her new pet through her lashes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So sorry to interrupt. This meeting happened much faster than Ava and I intended, but we’ll make the best of it. Guys, this Scarlet. Scarlet Duchesne.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was heavy silence that fell upon the group once Allegra uttered those words. There were so many questions that circled around Ariadne's brain, but she knew she couldn’t ask any of them until she was sure it was safe. The Duchesne last name was a cursed one and information was power. Scarlet already had enough of it. No need to add more until she was sure the brunette could be trusted. “Where did you find her?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“New York. Ava had a friend take her in until she was ready to come here. But circumstances changed. We needed to bring her much sooner than expected. It’s troublesome, but not terribly so.” she answered, taking a glass of champagne that looked untouched from a table and gave it to Scarlet. She downed in two seconds and tapped her glass with her finger. Allegra smiled and refilled her glass from a champagne bottle. “I am really sorry, I ruined your party.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne smiled. “Please, this is more action than this room has ever seen in the last three hundred years. We should thank you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alysse pinched her nose and sighed. “Take Scarlet upstairs to the dorms. She’ll be sleeping in your room while she’s here. We’ll enroll her in the school tomorrow.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne nodded, still somewhat watching Scarlet. Apart from drinking the champagne that Allegra kept pouring in the glass, she wasn’t really doing much. She seemed way too calm for everything that just happened, especially for someone raised in the normal world. “Are you okay?” she asked the brunette, trying to sound nice and calming without using her powers on her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Scarlet raised an eyebrow, the same glint in her eyes as when she watched Ariadne compel everyone on the guest list. “Define okay.” She had a British accent that Ariadne felt suited her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll be fine.” Ariadne decided with a small smile on her lips. Scarlet grinned in response, all pink lips and white teeth. She definitely looked like she imagined an offspring of Seraphine’s would: beautiful and deadly. “Let us change and we’ll go up to our room. I assume you could use some sleep after your day?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Surprisingly, I’ve had worse, but yes. I am tired.” Scarlet answered, her words accentuated by a small yawn. She drained her glass and stood up, using some napkins to clean out her clothes of dust. Ariadne and Orion went into the ballroom’s bathroom and changed into some more comfortable clothes and went out, leaving Alysse to deal with the mess. The night was upon Molokai and everyone was inside so the short trip from the ballroom to the academy was quiet and fast. Once they reached the castle, they entered a back hallway that was known only by a few. Ariadne knew the story of the castle, but her storytelling skills were lacking and she needed to keep Scarlet from asking questions, not add to them. She looked over at Orion who knew exactly what she wanted him to do. He winked at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Scarlet, let me tell you the story of this castle. You look like a girl who enjoys a good horror story.” Scarlet just smiled. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Leave a comment and tell me what you think :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. interlude. up Babylon-like walls - narrator's POV</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Orion kissed Ariadne goodbye as they reached their door and bowed in front of Scarlet. “Bye, mademoiselle. Sleep tight and don’t let Thomas bite.”</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ngl, i lowkey want this legend to be true. can u imagine if this was the reason behind the Bermuda Triangle?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“So what is this place?” Scarlet asked as they climbed one of the many sets of stairs that took to the dorm rooms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Think of this as an Academy.” Orion answered, taking up the mantle of the story teller. “The corridor we’re on right now is part of the old castle and is not really used anymore which is why it looks the way it is. The rest of it is really beautiful. It also has a really interesting back story.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uuu, scary story time.” Scarlet said, grinning as her hand brushed the stone walls. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Indeed.” Orion cleared his throat and pretended to put on glasses and open up a book. “Molokai, the island you’re on is named after its original owner, Kristophe Molokai, a wealthy merchant that lived back in the seventeen century. Now, the story goes like this. Apparently, the reason he made this island was the fact that his son was a psychotic killer. Think Charles Manson, Jack the Ripper and Jeffree Dahmer all in one. He liked raping his victims and torturing them before disposing of their bodies. His father thought that by relocating him on a deserted island he could cure him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, the old isolation technique. Yeah, heard of it.” Scarlet muttered, more for herself than for the others. Orion gave her a look, but she didn’t explain further. He made a mental note to ask questions later.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In any case, the island has a … force field, I guess you could call it until you learn more. It makes it impossible to track and see unless you know how to find it. It was the perfect hideout. Thomas, Kristophe’s son could hunt and kill animals to satisfy his craving for murder and his family could live in peace knowing there were no muders to cover up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As rich people do.” Scarlet intervened. Orion shushed her and Scarlet retaliated by pushing him jokingly into the wall. Orion pretended to be extremely injured. “Oh, sod off.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As I was saying, they lived in relative peace for the first few years. Eventually, boredom and lack of socialization forced them to invite some of their friends to live on the island and, confident enough that the hunting would keep Thomas in check, they started slowly to create their own village on the island. Molokai.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Idiots.” Scarlet butted in again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Indeed.” Orion answered, trying to accept Scarlet’s quips as part of the storytelling experience. “After a few years, their daughter, Emalinne, turned fifteen and was of age to get married. They found a suitor, had the wedding and in about a year she had a baby son and a husband and lived in a little cottage house down the hill. Kristophe, his wife, Marianne and Thomas still lived here, in their castle. Thomas, now about eighteen, had some trouble with the ladies. He was rough and impatient and couldn’t hold off his advances before the courtship was over and many of the girls refused him, unwilling to give up their innocence up until marriage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Technical virgins.” Scarlet said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Orion laughed. “Yeah, exactly. Thomas had a rough time with people in general. I’m sure modern day psychiatrists would have a field day with him, but back then, they didn’t really exist. Eventually, Kristophe married him off to some friend’s daughter and soon she had a baby. Everything seemed to be going peachy for the family for a little while.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Soon, it was time for the son to be alone with his wife so the parents decided to get a house on the island and let Thomas live in the castle with his wife and two children. Just before they moved, though, the night before actually, they were murdered in their sleep. Their jewelry disappeared and their clothes were ripped and dirty with blood. Everyone assumed thieves had someone made onto the island because they didn’t know Kristophe had secured it with his … force field. Thomas fed that thief frenzy. He organized searches, funded detectives and offered rewards for information. Naturally nobody was caught.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Two months later, Anastacia, Thomas’s wife was murdered in her bed while Thomas was away at a friend’s house.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Burglary?” Scarlet asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yup, same modus operandi. Jewels taken, clothes ripped.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now, I'm going to throw in a wild guess and say there was no thief.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ding, ding, ding, we got a winner. No, no thief. The daughter moved into the castle to help her brother take care of the children and she, along with every last member of the family apart from Thomas and his oldest daughter were killed systematically, two months apart from each other. Everyone thought the house was haunted. Thomas took his daughter and moved to France and nobody heard from them since. The locals attempted to burn the castle down several times but everytime the fire would just put itself out and the house would be fine. After that they boarded it up and for a while everyone attempted to ignore the creepy house on the hill. Eventually though, everyone moved out and for many years the island was abandoned.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Orion stopped talking as they reached the corridor that led to the dorm rooms. “And?” Scarlet asked, looking up at Orion with big, brown eyes. “What happened?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m afraid it’s the end of the road. You’ll have to wait for the rest of the story until tomorrow.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Scarlet pouted. “You’re no fun.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Orion kissed Ariadne goodbye as they reached their door and bowed in front of Scarlet. “Bye, mademoiselle. Sleep tight and don’t let Thomas bite.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Leave a comment and tell me what you think :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. i'm quite fond of my insanity</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Orion turned towards me. His brown eyes turned yellow and his hair lightened a tone, making his tanned skin contrast beautifully. I was never a fan of drawing, much preferring writing, but in that moment, I longed to have the talent. It felt like a moment worth a canvas. “I don’t know. There’s something about you, I can't quite put my finger on it. You make me trust you. Maybe that’s crazy, but it is true.”</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Waking up in a strange bed was not a regular thing for me, as many might imagine. So when I opened my eyes to find I was in a beige room, sleeping on a dark purple, four poster bed that was definitely not my own, it took me a while to figure out what happened before the memories of the night before hit me in the head, harder than a brick on steroids.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mornin’.” Allegra greeted me, getting up from her own bed and stretching. Her head wound was gone, she had a white shirt and a black, pleated skirt on and was holding a plate of muffins. “Come on, we need to go to Ava’s office. You ‘ll get your answers there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where’s … the other one. I forgot her name.” I asked, standing up and giving the clothes on my bed a dirty look. Same pleated skirt as Allegra’s and same shirt, only mine was purple.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will hurt you.” came another voice from the bathroom. Fear for my life brought forth her name from the depths of my foggy memory.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ari!” I yelled, wiping sweat from my forehead as my heart slowly started to slow down. “I was just joking. Of course I remember you. And, just out of curiosity, how good is your hearing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Extremely.” she said, coming out of the bathroom, dressed in the same outfit. Her shirt was light blue. I raised an eyebrow in question, but she waved me off. “Later, E. Part of your teaching experience.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fantastic.” I deadpanned. I took my getaway bag which contained some toiletries and my outfit and dashed into the bathroom for a quick shower and change and then came out to join the girls. They were on my bed, watching something on a tablet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“ … seven dead in the freak gas pipe explosion yesterday. Authorities are currently investigating if there was any foul play, or just an unfortunate accident. Back to you, Jeff.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s going on?” I asked as I picked up a muffin off the plate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There was a gas pipe explosion at an apartment complex not far from you. Ten people were injured and seven died, including two children and three women from Rose’s gym. Care to venture an idea?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The tall dude was looking for us, but didn’t know where to find us?” I asked, sitting down next to them. The news were still going, but now talking about something else. Some freak storm, turning Nevada up-side-down.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Afraid so.” Allegra answered, her eyes glued to the tablet. She finally closed it after a couple of minutes and stood up. “Come on. The sooner you find out, the better.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I stood up too, still holding my untouched muffin and opened my mouth to ask where Ava was when my vision turned blurry all of the sudden and nearly went black. I stood back down and blinked a few times, willing whatever fainting spell I nearly had to go away. Allegra was next to me in an instant. “Are you alright?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m fine. I must have stood up too fast.” Allegra still looked concerned, so I put on my best, fake, ‘I’m fine’ smile and stood back up, slowly this time. “I’m fine. It happens sometimes. I have a few deficiencies in minerals and vitamins from the years I was in the orphanage and on the street. Trust me, I was much worse then.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded and sighed. “Okay, then. Follow me.” she said, not pushing anymore. Thank Lucifer. I followed the girls outside, trying my hardest to push back the growing migraine in my head. It wasn’t hard. I’ve had migraines all my life. When Rose first took me in, she had me see a bunch of doctors, but none could find something wrong with me. Eventually I got tired of the check-ups and the worry so I hid them. There was nothing physical and my mental issues were not the headache-giving kind so I learned how to ignore them. It was easy for the most part. Knowing Rose wouldn’t worry so much helped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, tell me about Nicole?” Ariadne asked Allegra while we were climbing down yet another set of stairs. I could swear this Academy was only stairs since I saw more of them here than at a fifteen story museum. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s been bitching about her mother not getting that empty seat in the Council. She thinks because she’s a descendant of Kristophe she deserves it. She’s been stirring quite some trouble with the fringe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s worked with Seraphine to overthrow my mother sixteen years ago. The only reason she escaped prison was the fact that she was pregnant with Nicole and my mother felt sorry for her. She’s lucky to be alive right now, chilling in that posh villa of hers with all of her dead husband’s money. What game is she playing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know, Ari, but she’s loud. Any louder and she’ll be heard from space. There are many people who don’t like the way Alysse is running things. They think she’s too soft. They want someone to answer for all the crime happening and Alysse doesn’t even have a plan, let alone a culprit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We all know who the culprit is. Lilith is beyond our scope.” Ariadne snapped, raising her hands in annoyance. “What the fuck do they think Caroline can do that my mother can’t? Round up the most powerful succubus in existence and slap her on her wrist? Good luck with that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Allegra rolled her eyes. “Ari, quiet down. We don’t need the whole school knowing all of your affairs.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pardon me, who is Nicole?” I asked, feeling out of place again. I was tired of the feeling. I always prided myself on being the smartest person in a room and all this not-knowing bullshit was getting to me. Probably the lack of sleep too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A bitch.” Ariadne huffed, still mad. “A really annoying bitch that is out-living her usefulness.” The hallway we were on suddenly got colder than it used to. Allegra shot Ariadne a dirty look and the temperature returned to normal. What the hell was that about?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A few minutes later we reached what supposedly was Ava’s office. It had a large red door and a golden plaque that said Avarice Cahaya, headmistress. Ariadne knocked on the door and after a voice gave us permission, we entered. Ava’s office was a combination of old and modern. The walls were made of stone, as was the flooring and the furniture was big and almost Gothic in style. Mixed in with that were touch screen monitors hanging on the walls, a touch screen table in the middle of the room and a high tech, high powered laptop on top of Ava’s desk. Ava herself was a vision in a red dress that stopped just above the knees and high heeled black boots with what looked like actual metal spikes around the laces. Her red hair was draped over her shoulder in a low tail. “Hello Scarlet. Welcome to Avalon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Should I even ask how you know my name?” I said, sitting down on one of the chairs scattered around Ava’s huge desk. Ariadne and Allegra sat down beside me. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know everything about you. I was the one who sent Allegra after you to make sure you weren’t taken by Lilith before your time. She wasn’t supposed to engage,” she pointed out, turning an amused glance on Allegra who blushed, “but I’m glad she did. Sometimes , being alone is worse than anything else. How are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tired, angry and confused.” I answered promptly, not really feeling like beating around the bush. I needed some answers and needed them yesterday.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fair enough.” Ava grinned. She closed the laptop and sat her hands on the table. “There is a lot I need to explain to you and unfortunately we don’t have time for me to be as thorough as I would like so I will attempt to be brief. I am sure you have found yourself in your short life span feeling a little different than others. People would gravitate towards you only to reject you when they got to be close enough to you. I am sure you had no trouble with charming people and getting them to do whatever you pleased. That is a beautiful necklace you are wearing, by the way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>My hand instantly closed around the locket that nestles between my collar bones. It was the only thing that was left of my parents. The only possession I had that was completely mine. “Thank you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you know what a succubus is?” Ava asked randomly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I raised an eyebrow. “A seductress. A demon that would seduce men and consume their vitality while sleeping with them to keep herself young.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ava nodded once. “Very close to the truth. You see, succubi, incubi, vampires, Nephilim and all the other mythical creatures you’ve heard only in legends, well, they’re not so mythical around here.” I raised an eyebrow again. Is she about to tell me fairytales are real? “I know you don’t believe in fairytales.” she went on. “I didn’t expect you to. Which is why I will prove it to you now. Ariadne, if you please.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne sighed and nodded. “Why am I always the lab rat?” she asked, mostly rhetorical. She stood up, moved her chair away and turned towards me. She raised her hand and pointed her left index finger at Ava’s glass of water. A bubble rose up from the glass and floated around until it reached me. I touched it. It felt so real. She twisted her hand and the bubble grew until it was the size of my fist. Then Ariadne raised her right arm and pointed her open palm at the bubble. Flakes of ice started to form on the outside of the bubble until it was encased in ice. Ava took an ice pick from somewhere and threw it at Ariadne who caught it with ease. She stabbed the ice bubble with the ice pick. As it went right through, a stream of water falling out of the bubble from the tiny whole right in my lap. Ariadne maneuvered the bubble back in Ava’s glass and put her hand in my lap, over my skirt. Heat started radiating through her palm and in two seconds, my skirt was dry. Then she moved the chair back in place and stood back down watching me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Questions?” Ava asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I shook my head. Truth be told, I was pretty stunned. I fancied myself a magician a while ago, learning card tricks and stuff like that. I could count cards at blackjack like a pro. But what Ariadne did was so far out of the scope of reality it felt like my brain had shut itself off. I couldn’t think, I could barely breathe. “Is that all you wanted to tell me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ava smiled. “No. What Ariadne is, among others, is an elementalist. Elementali can control the five core elements that the world is based on: water, air, fire, earth and quintessence, or more specifically the power of life. Most Elementali can control one or two elements and usually they are complementary elements. Ariadne here is one of the few who can control three. And she’s recently started learning the fourth. Normally, out of safety reasons, the law requires all Elementali that can control more than two elements to be tagged and closely watched. As Ariadne is next in line to the throne, being on the watchlist would remove her from the line altogether. Naturally, I've decided to keep her abilities a secret. I trust you would do the same.” I nodded. “Great. Now, back to you. There is a reason why I asked if you knew what a succubus was. That is what you are. Succubi have a natural charisma. In time, with training you will be able to command people to do as you please. You can read feelings, giving you an edge in a fight and you can also influence those feelings. You can’t change them, but if someone is angry, you can make them angrier and vice versa.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know what to say.” I replied honestly. How does one respond to that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t have to say anything. Now you know what you are, and while this doesn’t respond to all your questions, I hope at least it gives you a little bit of closure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know if closure is the right word. But it does explain some of the things that happened to me in the orphanage. It doesn’t make it better.” I said. Ava looked confused. I guess the headmistress didn’t know just about everything. “Just how much do you know about me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought I knew everything. But this is the first time I have heard about anything happening in the orphanages. What exactly happened?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My powers apparently. My charm.” I told her, a little bit of bitterness escaping my voice. “My allure, whatever you people call it. The carers were very allured by me. And everyone else, but me in particular. So, tell me, miss Cahaya. You sent Allegra to make sure I wasn’t hurt. Did that include emotional pain or just physical?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ava looked at a loss for words for the first time since I arrived there. I took a little pride in that. I knew something she didn’t. “I assume you had spies or informants. Did they forget to mention those little things?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Charles was my informant.” Ava replied, speaking the name I screamed sometimes in my nightmares. I laughed, but it was humourless. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Figures.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who’s Charles?” Allegra asked, speaking slowly as the mere mention of that name brought her either great pain or hatred. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Someone not worth mentioning so many times. He’s in the past. Unfortunately, he still works at the orphanage, but he behaves. I took care of that. Because no matter how many people you have watch over me, at the end of it all, I am my own protector. Isn’t it right, Ava? Speaking of, you said this is an Academy?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ava looked a little taken aback by the change of subject but she went with it. “Yes, we teach people like you how to manage, control and use their powers. Like I said, there are many of us. And we are all different.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So Hogwarts of you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ava grinned. “Trust me, Hogwarts wishes it was Avalon.” She snapped her fingers and a door opened in the back of her office. I could only see a dark corridor behind it. Apparently, night vision was not in the repertoire of a succubus. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>We followed Ava into the dark corridor, disregarding all stranger-danger protocols. It was in an older part of the building that had stone walls and torches hanging from the ceiling. Ava picked up a torch and led us through a small maze of halls until we reached another red door. “You really like red.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ava grinned. “It’s a good color.” She opened the door and entered a big room, filled with cabinets and couches. In the middle of the room was a small stone basin on top of a stone cabinet. It contained a dark red liquid swirling around in it as if it were alive. It was weird.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the hell is this? Some kind of ancient sacrifice chamber?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ava laughed, her voice echoing through the room. “Yes. Exactly that. This is the chamber where Thomas would bring his victims, the animals he would kill and the foreigners that stumbled upon the island. The electric field surrounding the island kept it from being found, but some could still stumble upon it. Like everything, even magic has weak spots. The blood in the basin belongs to every creature Thomas killed. He put a spell on it to make sure it stayed fresh. He could come down here whenever he wanted and bask in the prowess of his powers. It was quite disturbing actually. A few times he would bring me here too, explaining what he did and how he couldn’t wait for us to do those things together.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>My brain short circuited. “Excuse me, what the fuck?” There was only one explanation that made sense with everything that Ava just told me and that was the fact that Ava was Thomas’s daughter, the one he took with him in France. Except, that was four hundred years ago. Ava looked twenty five, at most. Illogical, right? Right?!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are right, Scarlet. I am Thomas’s daughter. Avarice Molokai. I took on the name Cahaya after my husband, three hundred years ago because I wanted to distance myself from my family tragedy. I was tired of being seen as the lunatic’s offspring.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That sentence just blew logic out the window. See, look at it, flying away with the birds and all hope I had of maintaining a normal life. “Should I ask?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am a vampire.” Ava clarified things. She turned to me. “You are awfully calm about this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I snorted. “I’m still hoping I’ll wake up and this would just be a weird dream, but it’s starting to look less and less likely that would ever happen. I don’t know, I haven’t had time to process everything. It will take a while for the meltdown to form. Just bear with me. It will happen.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ava shook her head. “I don’t want it to happen. Unfortunately, as much as i would love to give you the time to understand this fully, it is a luxury we do not possess currently. You need to learn a lot and very fast. There are things happening right now that very much depend on how skilled you are with your powers. You have no idea what awaits you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne rolled her eyes. “You’re scaring her. No need to be so blunt about it. She literally just got here yesterday.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ava rounded up on her. Her eyes flashed red for a second before they returned to their normal green. “You should know better, princess. It’s your ass on the line too. We need to keep your mother on the throne, now more than ever. She is the only one capable of leading at a time like this. That means securing that seat on the Council.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What seat? What are you talking about?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Politics, Scarlet. I am talking about politics.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright.” I answered, clapping my hands. “Politics I know. Hit me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne sat down in a chair and sighed. “Our system functions on a monarhic constitution basis. We have the royals, our queens, kings, princesses and princes and then we have the Council, nine people directly descended from Molokai’s line that assist the royals in the decision making. Right now, we’re missing a Council member. Seraphine, a giant pain in the ass, was the ninth Council member until she lost her marbles sixteen years ago and they forced her off the throne. Since then, the Council was in a perfect balance, a four-four split. Four of the Council members want my mother on the throne, four don’t. You can imagine how crucial it is we get the ninth member to be on our side.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what does that have to do with me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Everything.” Allegra replied, taking control of the conversation. “The only way for a seat to be assigned to someone is if that person is related to the former Council member, or if all members plus the royals decide unanimously to pick someone. Because of the split, that has proven to be an issue. So our best bet is the family clause. Seraphine has a husband that would fit that clause. However, he’s unable to take the seat for … reasons. Seraphine didn’t have other relatives that we knew off. Her parents were killed and she didn’t have any siblings so the last resort would be her child.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And that’s a problem because?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Up until recently, most people had no idea Seraphine even had a child. She delivered it secretly on an island in Greece that was owned by a friend of hers. An island similar to this one, thus impossible to track. She then gave the child up to another friend that left her in an orphanage in London where the girl stayed for the next few years. Afterwards, she was adopted by an American couple, spent some time in American foster homes before being taken in by a friend of Ava’s that kept her safe until she returned on the island. Ring any bells?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I blinked at her. Was she saying what I thought she said? I was Seraphine’s child? The same Seraphine that was apparently responsible for hundreds of cold blooded murders? “Seraphine’s name was Duchesne. She took the Gregori surname after her husband, Alexei Gregori, your father, but when she had you, she gave you her name as a keepsake.” Ava said. “Look, I know this is a bad way for you to find out. About your mother, about our world. But there wasn’t any time to do it while you were growing up. When Rose took you in, we debated whether or not we should tell you. I guess fear won. We felt it was best we wait until you are in the Academy. I’m sorry, Scarlet, for everything you went through up until this point. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best we could do with what we had.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Trouble processing?” Orion asked me, sitting down next to me on the grass. Somehow, after all those revelations, I still managed to remember my way out of the torture chamber and out of the Academy. I ran through the woods surrounding the Academy as fast as my legs would carry me until I was so far away I couldn’t hear the teens playing anymore. I thought nobody would find me here, but apparently Orion wasn’t just about anyone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kinda. It’s … a lot for one day.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Orion laughed. “Sweetie it would be a lot for a lifetime for some people. You handle this like a pro, I’m not going to lie.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I laughed. For some reason, sitting there in the grass, surrounded by nature and with Orion next to me … I felt like I could do anything. I felt powerful and wonderful. It was amazing. Like all of my worries disappeared. “Yeah, that’s me, superwoman. Shh, don’t tell anyone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My lips are sealed. Anyway, now that the bad stuff is out of the way, what else do you want to know?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He grinned. “I’m a werewolf. And, before you run around asking people what they are, let me give you a piece of advice. Asking us what we are is a little bit like asking a lady about her age. It’s not appropriate. Being a succubus gives you so much power. And among those abilities, comes the ability of recognizing us. We all have that. In time, you will learn how to use it, but for now, let me give you some tips. Our uniforms, as you might have guessed, are color coordinated based on our dominant species. My shirt is yellow because that’s the color associated with wolves. Succubi and incubi get purple, vamps get red, Nephilim get white, Seelies are gray, Elementali are green and witches are black. Don’t ask me the meaning of the colours because I have no clue. I skipped those classes. But that should give you a headstart.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks Orion. I really appreciate this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No prob, princess.” he said and stood up. “Come on.” he continued, giving me his hand. “Wanna see something cool?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded and followed him deeper into the grounds. Going into that chamber with the girls gave me chills, but for some reason, heading into an enclosed forest with only a boy to defend me seemed safer than that cold room up in the castle. “Where are we going?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The woods are primarily wolf territory, but there is a lake here and a lot of the kids throw parties around it so we’ve decided to set secluded areas where only us can go. It’s like our wolf only, stranger protected safe spaces. They’re really cool.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So why are you taking me there?” I asked, right as we reached a small patch of uneven grass that seemed faker than the rest. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Orion turned towards me. His brown eyes turned yellow and his hair lightened a tone, making his tanned skin contrast beautifully. I was never a fan of drawing, much preferring writing, but in that moment, I longed to have the talent. It felt like a moment worth a canvas. “I don’t know. There’s something about you, I can't quite put my finger on it. You make me trust you. Maybe that’s crazy, but it is true.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Leave me a comment and tell me what you think :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. interlude. over many a quaint and curious</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Allegra laughed. “You always get bad feelings, Ari. You’re always such a pessimist.<br/>Ariadne sighed. “I’m a realist, Allie. That’s the problem. So far, I've always trusted my instincts and they were always right. I’m telling you, something bad is going to happen. And soon.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“How should I know if she’s going to be ready in a week? She just got here and has four millennia of information to assimilate in a couple of months. Shouldn’t we let her adjust before we sent her to that lion’s den?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We don’t have time for that, Ariadne. Eventually people are going to realize that Seraphine’s daughter is back and very much existing and they are going to be on her like glue, watching her every move. We have to act while she still knows very little about our world. Hiding her last name is a temporary solution for a very permanent problem”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can’t manipulate her, mother. She’s a person, not a tool.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne’s mom laughed bitterly. “She became a tool as soon as she was born, darling.” And she hung up. Ariadne sighed and put her phone down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Problems in Paradise?” Ava asked. They were sitting outside of the Academy on a bench, watching some of the early birds play volleyball. Orion had texted her a few minutes ago telling her that Scarlet was kind of okay and wanted to take a walk to clear her head. Ariadne didn’t really know what to do besides letting her cool off so she could process things. She wasn’t good at consoling people. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just my mother triggering my anxiety, as per usual.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You need to be more assertive. How can you expect to rule a kingdom after your mother steps down if you can’t rule your emotions?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My mother will die Queen. The only way she will step down is if she’s forced to and as long as I exist, no one will force her to.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ava looked at her, trying to gouge out what exactly she was going to do next. Ariadne wasn’t stupid. She had been different since she was born and she wasn’t going to let anyone destroy her mother. If she had to reveal her powers to the public to make that happen, she would. She didn’t really care that much about her mother, their relationship was too damaged for that. But she cared for her people and for better or for worse, Alysse Dimitrou was good for her people. She was the best queen Avalon will have in the near future. “I just hope you won’t do anything stupid. You’re not impulsive. Don’t start acting without thinking.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne grinned. “I know, Ava. I’ll be fine. You’ll see.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s up, Doc?” Allegra said as she plopped down on the bench next to Ariadne. Ava stood up and left with a wave, letting them catch up in peace. Ariadne realized she didn’t really get to talk to her cousin alone in a while.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing much. Just worrying, as usual. Have you talked to Rose? Is everything okay with her?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Allegra nodded. “Yup. She called the police and claimed to have been ‘robbed’. There is an investigation pending, but obviously nothing much will come out of it. Menelaus is as good as gone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Couldn’t Aeon go after it? I mean isn’t that why Ava formed it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aeon 6 was Ava’s pride and joy. It started out as a hit squad made up of very strong supernaturals, but over the course of 300 years and four replacements, it has become a very well oiled machine that worked as their main line of defense. “Aeon is not for hunts, Ari. You know that. They have bigger fish to fry. Even if it’s about Scarlet. And trust me, I made it very clear it’s about her. Alexei can’t be seen doing favors to the family.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about Scarlet? Have you talked to your mother about why her powers weren’t manifesting?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Allegra nodded again. “She said something about a sealing spell. That Seraphine might have sealed Scarlet’s power when she was young to keep it from going haywire. Seraphine intended to keep Scarlet in the foster system until she was of age and then to get her to her compound, wherever that is. Only Ava’s quick thinking saved her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sealing spell, huh.” Ariadne mumbled, her brain spinning as she thought. She only knew a little about sealing spells, but what she knew was that they were very difficult to make since they were blood spells. Blood spells were disastrous if they were done wrong. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m just thinking. Blood spells can only be done by family and Seraphine isn’t a witch. She took a huge risk placing a blood spell on her daughter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, but not all seal spells are blood related. Maybe she used one that isn’t so dangerous.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne scoffed. “She blocked all of Scarlet’s power. Which let’s face it, it’s a big thing all on its own. She’s supposed to be the reincarnation of Ember, right? So why seal her power? If i were Seraphine, i’d want my daughter to join me as soon as she proved she’s capable of what she’s supposed to do. Unless she isn’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve felt her magic.” Allegra mumbled. “If it’s one thing I can sense from that girl, it's her power. It practically begs to be seen.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne looked back at the forest, watching the volleyball game for a while. She had no idea what to make of this. Seraphine had always seemed to have an endgame to everything she did. At least that’s what everyone kept telling her. Nothing that happened to Scarlet seemed like it was planned. It’s like she just appeared one day on Earth and God decided to mess with her just for fun. She felt a bit bad for the brunette. She clearly didn’t deserve all that happened. “I don’t know. I’m just getting a bad feeling out of all of this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Allegra laughed. “You always get bad feelings, Ari. You’re always such a pessimist.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne sighed. “I’m a realist, Allie. That’s the problem. So far, I've always trusted my instincts and they were always right. I’m telling you, something bad is going to happen. And soon.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. in borrowing an angel, in repaying a devil</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“Certainly.” Maze said, all weariness gone from her eyes and voice. “I am very welcoming.” she added, a dirty undertone laced in her words. She winked at me and left. I heard Allegra snarl/<br/>“Annoying brat.”</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“So, this is an Academy, right? Kind of like high school, then?” I asked, sitting down on my bed. The day passed like you would believe, with Ari giving me another tour of the grounds and the interior of the Academy and Orion telling me more stories about the island and the castle. It was a cool place, if you forget the vampires and the werewolves and everything else. Kind of like boarding school. Only a thousand times more dangerous.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” Ariadne answered eloquently. They were both sitting cross legged on my bed, holding glasses of wine and popcorn bowls. We had an impromptu slumber party when Allegra pointed out that even after my lesson with Ava, I still didn’t know jack shit about the world I was suddenly thrust into. Unwillingly, might i add. “Ava founded this academy two hundred years ago when she came back on the island. She wanted to give supernatural children a safe space where they could learn how their powers worked and how they could grow them. It was a great idea, at first. But, eventually, people’s prejudice turned this school into a battleground. First, there were the vampires. Parents didn’t feel comfortable sending their kids to a school that had vampire students, or staff. Then there were the wolves. Same thing, too dangerous. When Theo became a teacher, some parents thought he might try to take advantage of the students who had crushes on him. For a long time half demons and Nephilim were also banned from the school and sent to satellite academies on the continent because people feared their power. It was a mess. Nephilim were only allowed back two years ago and this is the first time half demons can stay in school in a hundred years. So far, nobody has complained.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why didn’t Ava try to change their mind?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She tried. Every time. But the people and the Council pay for the expenses. And a castle as big as this has a lot of expenses. The parents threatened to have their kids pulled back if Ava didn’t comply.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That sucks. I can’t imagine finally having a place where I could learn and not being allowed to go there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne shrugged. “It’s one of the reasons we’re the fewest we’ve ever been. We weren’t trained properly and we couldn’t defend ourselves, so we started dying in bulk. I would say there’s probably a million of us in the entire world. We used to be about ten. Still, it could be worse. There’s less than a thousand succubi and incubi left.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somehow, that didn’t shock me. The way our powers worked, relying so much on emotions, having such volatile people out there unable to defend themselves or not knowing how to attack made it pretty obvious that we’d be the first to disappear. “Not to sound stupid, but our main thing is sex. What happened to good old fashioned baby making?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Allegra grinned. “Oh, there’s a lot of baby making. I’d say about ninety five percent of your kind is hiding out among humans and making babies. But succubi and incubi are very precious. Your blood can be used in a great number of spells and the younger that blood is, the better. There’s a lot of people looking to score a succubi baby.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There are so many things wrong with that sentence.” I said, shivering in my pjs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Allie looked at her watch and sighed. “We should go to bed. Tomorrow is a big day and you need to be well rested.” she said, pointing a finger at me. I nodded distractedly even though the last thing I wanted to do was sleep. I felt very jittery like I had a lot of energy building up inside me that I needed to let out. But I couldn't just start randomly walking around Avalon and get lost. I sighed and decided to at least attempt to sleep. Maybe counting sheep really worked in this scenario. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>I had laid down in my bed as Ariadne went to the bathroom and Allie pulled her bed curtains closed when my phone buzzed and I saw a text message pop up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>*** hey girl. U asleep?***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I didn’t recognize the number and I generally had a rule to not respond to unknown numbers because of Rose’s job. But then my phone pinged again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>***its orion btw.***</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>***no, I'm awake. What’s up?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>***b ready in 30. I wanna show u something.***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I raised an eyebrow at the screen. What could Orion possibly be showing me at eleven in the evening without Ariadne knowing?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I peeked behind my curtains when I heard the bedroom door open and close. Ariadne came out just wearing a silk mini robe and put something in her ears before snapping her fingers and getting into bed, pulling the curtains closed. She had explained that because of her very good vampire hearing, she was sometimes woken up in the middle of the night by random sounds around the castle. Ava developed some sort of in ear devices that could block sounds altogether. I waited for as long as I dared before quietly pushing my curtains open and getting dressed in a tank top and a pair of shorts. It was still quite warm outside, even in the evening. I picked up my phone and exited the room, closing the door with care. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A couple of minutes later I heard Orion run up the stairs to our level. He grinned when he saw me and motioned for me to follow him, holding a finger to his lips signing me to be quiet. I followed him down a different staircase, going through a couple of hallways and more stairs until we reached what felt like the main floor, only in a different part of the school. “This part of the building is actually one of the few remaining original parts that was left the way it was built. It was mostly kept as a hidden back entrance, but once Ava was allowed to have werewolf students and a part of the back forest was given to us, this path became our default since it leads straight there. The lake I took you in the morning is right behind the forest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cool. So do I get to meet the wolves, then?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he took me to the lake, most of the wolves were either sleeping or eating in the academy so it had been just us. But I had hoped that i would meet them soon. Some of my nervous twitching that would have not let me sleep started to ebb away as soon as I went outside. I looked up at the sky. I’ve always felt like my moods aligned to the way the weather was like. I had trouble sleeping during the new and full moon cycles and I got moody if it was cold or too hot. I was a very difficult child, in retrospect I don't really blame all those families for not keeping me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yup. They’re very excited to meet you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re an interesting character, Scarlet Duchesne.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Montgomery.” i rectified. We had all agreed, with Ava leading, that i’d be using Rose’s name as long as i could so nobody learned my true identity until it was absolutely necessary. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He waved me off. “Yeah, whatever. The wolves already know who you are. In case of attack, they are our first line of defense because of our quick healing powers, so they generally need to know everything.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How many are there?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In the pack? Twenty-five. But only five, myself included are students. The rest are grown ups that live on the island and hang around us, teaching the younger ones how to tame their wolf nature. Plus, werewolves thrive in packs.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All werewolves are in packs?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, we have rogues, of course. We tend to avoid them because those are usually the ones that like to move and not adhere to our rules. As long as they don’t make their presence known and they don’t kill anyone, we let them live. But, yeah, most stay in packs. It’s easier and safer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, not that we got that out of the way, other legends and myths you’d like to clear up for me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, we don’t always turn during the full moon. We can pretty much turn whenever we want to. The full moon does affect us in a certain way. It makes us a lot more hyper and willing to run around as wolves. Also, we’re not immortal, but because we heal super fast and our cells have a much harder time aging, it wouldn’t be a stretch to see a seventeen years old werewolf and find out he’s sixty five.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How old are you?” i asked half hoping he was going to say two hundred.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I turned eighty last month.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well you don’t look a day over seventy.” I joked, smiling a little. For some reason, walking through the woods, or a park always calmed me down. Rose used to take me for a walk in the beginning when I first started working for her. It felt strangely like home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, stop, you’ll make me blush.” he said, fanning his face with his hand. We stopped in the middle of a small clearing and Orion pulled a necklace from underneath his T-shirt. It was a small oval, transparent stone, that shone like a diamond in the star light. He held it between his fingers and closed his eyes. “Érchomai.” he whispered and seconds later the clearing was filled with wolves. Twenty four of them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s handy.” I deadpanned. He grinned at me. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Summoning stone. All Alphas carry one. It helps us summon the pack to our location when we need them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alpha?” I asked, a touch impressed. He nodded. “Okay.” Orion winked at me and nodded at the wolves. They rose on their back legs and started changing. It was … weird. To say the least. The fur retreated into their skin, their snouts shrank and their bodies changed until I had twenty four very naked, clearly not prudish people standing in front of me. Most of them smiled, some looked weary. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi?” I mumbled, feeling both out of place and also like I belonged here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello.” said the oldest of them. He looked about twenty nine and had a very nice set of abs above a very big …. Well, you know. Don’t judge me, it caught my eye. “You must be Scarlet. I am Onai, the second in command.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“By choice, i might add. He was supposed to be the Alpha, but he stepped down in my favor.” Orion explained to me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Onai waved him off as if stepping down from being Alpha wasn’t a big deal. “I never fancied myself in a leadership position. I’m much more content just being your shadow.” he turned to me. “Would you be more comfortable if we clothed ourselves?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I blinked at him, not really knowing what to say. “I mean, it’s up to you. I don’t mind it enough to have an opinion.” Some of the younger wolves laughed at that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Onai smiled. “Then we shall remain as we are. We feel more comfortable the less layer we have separating ourselves from nature.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seems reasonable.” i said and said down on the grass. Orion and the wolves followed my lead. “So, why did you take me here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There are certain things that are better explained by people who haven’t lived four hundred years. Ava’s a sweetheart, but she lacks in the emotion department. She has lived in our world all her life. Sometimes it is hard for her to realize people who’ve been raised as human might need a different kind of approach.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Have you been raised in the human world?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Onai nodded. “My mother was human and my father died before he got to tell her what he was. She raised me not knowing about our world, about what I was. When I turned thirteen, my change started. I became more sensitive to smells, my hearing and vision got better; I was faster, stronger. I didn’t know what was happening, I thought it was just puberty. Then the full moon came. I have no recollection of what happened. All I remember was waking up in the woods and coming back home naked and covered in blood to find my mother torn to pieces in the living room.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I was stunned. Predictably my mind filled with weird, dark humor jokes as it always happened when i encountered things that made me uncomfortable. Wisely, I kept my mouth shut. “For a long time I blamed my father for not telling my mother what to expect; for dying before my first change. And for an even longer time I blamed myself for not having enough self control to just run away without killing my mother.” He looked around at his pack and smiled. “And then I found these guys. Well, they found me. They made me realize that it wasn’t my fault. You see, we can control most of our changes, except the first one.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded. “What about when you get angry? Or suffer through a trauma?” From my useless mythology trivia that I thought would never help me, I remembered that some creatures couldn’t control their power during emotional outbursts.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Onai shrugged. “It’s hard, but not impossible. Yes, powerful emotions such as anger or sadness could trigger a change, but in most cases we can control ourselves enough to either reverse the change or to run far enough to not hurt anyone. Accidents sometimes happen, but they’re few and far in between.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded. “Orion told me you tend to have long lifespans. I apologize if my question is rude, but how old are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Onai smiled. “You don’t have to apologize. I’m happy to answer whatever questions you have. And I am almost two hundred. Orion and myself are the only ones older than we look. The rest are pretty much as old as they seem. Maybe a couple of years older for some. Our rapid healing keeps our cells from deteriorating so our aging process is greatly slowed down. But we do age. I think the oldest werewolf in the world died at nine hundred years or so.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Didn’t Adam live about nine hundred years?” I mumbled, trying to remember that particular tidbit from the Bible. One of my foster families was deeply religious and made me read the whole damn book. It had been the most boring five hours of my life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m pretty sure they were inspired by us.” Orion sassed, grumpily. He smiled at me. “You sure know a lot about us, already.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I rolled my eyes. “I know what Google knows. I could probably write a book with all the information I thought useless until now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’d read it.” Orion said. He looked at his watch then, probably deciding I had enough fun for a night. “We should get back before the girls wake up and find you’re not in bed. Ariadne would have my neck if she thought I didn't let you have your beauty sleep. One more thing. As this is an Academy, classes will start on Monday. Ava will give you a copy of the curriculum with your classrooms tomorrow and explain more about our educational system then. Since all of us are starting at the same time, we’ll be in the same class, so we’ll help you catch up. Come on.” he said, standing up and helping me rise. “Let’s get back to your room. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I groaned. “Look, don’t get me wrong, I like that I'm finally getting some explanations for everything, but I’m starting to feel like my head is going to explode.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Orion grinned. “Don’t worry, you’ll feel better in the morning.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The valley was filled with screams of terror and the sound of flesh being torn apart by sharp teeth. I did not dare look down. My carriage had been turned on its side and I was struggling to breathe properly through my probably punctured lungs. I felt tears run down my face, my hand unconsciously going to rest against my swollen womb. My baby kicked two times before stilling and I could swear I could feel life draining out of his little body into the ground below me. I couldn’t wait until mine followed.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I will be with you shortly, my child. Please wait patiently.`` I whispered and closed my eyes for a few moments, resting them as I counted my heartbeats.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Beat ..</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Beat …</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Beat ….</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>….</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>My weird dream stayed with me during my shower, my breakfast and my walk to Ava’s office. I could barely hear Ariadne’s complaints about her mother and Allegra’s hushed words of wisdom. It wasn’t my first dream that felt more like a memory than a nightmare. I've had them since I was eight. They had become a staple in my life, similar to my many headaches and my annoying two-minute blackouts. I just chugged it as another reason why I'm weird.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Scarlet?” Ariadne asked, looking at me with her eyebrows furrowed in concern. I realized she must have asked me something while I was busy daydreaming about my issues.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? Sorry, I was just thinking about what I want to ask Ava.`` I said, the lie flowing naturally off my tongue. I wasn’t ready to let them know just how fucked up I was. She nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was just asking if you wanted us to go so you can be alone with Ava.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stay.” I said, suddenly not so willing to face my future alone. At least with Ariadne and Allegra there I could have some semblance of an assurance that I wasn’t going completely crazy. The girls nodded. Allegra gave my hand a quick, reassuring squeeze before she opened the door and followed Ari inside. I took a deep breath and went after them.</span>
</p><p><span>“Okay. Here's how our school works. It’s very obviously not a normal high school, therefore neither are our curriculums. We have nine teachers that each teach one particular subject. You will learn that subject for the entirety of your school experience, only moving up the difficulty as you move up in levels.” She handed me a piece of paper with each class and their respective teachers as well as the rooms in which the classes will be kept. “You’re a first former, as is Ariadne, Allegra and Orion. You might see people who are older or younger than you in your class. And that is because every species matures at a different age and we don’t force kids that aren’t ready for school to join. For your first year you will study Latin, which is your </span><span>Foreign Languages</span><span> study course for the year, basic self defense techniques for all species in </span><span>Gym</span><span>. Basic concoctions to help you heal and recover in case of an attack in </span><span>Chemistry</span><span>. The first few hundred years of our history in, well, </span><span>History</span><span>. You will also learn our laws and regulations in your </span><span>Khiraj Law</span><span> classroom, basic survival skills in our </span><span>Disaster Management,</span> <span>Astronomy</span><span>, planning and executing a mission or an assignment in </span><span>Tactical Thinking</span><span> and the anatomy and recognition of beasts and creatures as well as their weak and strong spots in </span><span>Biology</span><span>. Any questions so far?” I shook my head. Ava continued. “Okay. Classes will be held at different hours during the day based on what functions best with your attention spans and your capacity of learning. History is usually the second class of the day since during the first you will probably be too sleepy to learn anything and Astronomy is after the sun sets. Since the sun doesn’t set every day at the same hour, the class will have different hours. Once you start using your powers you will know when the sun sets and when it rises. We can all tell.”</span></p><p>
  <span>“How many hours do we have during a day?” Ava started rummaging through a desk drawer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Apologies. I forgot to give you your schedule.” She handed me another piece of paper. I saw that it was similar to a university schedule. Some days had less hours, some had more. I really liked it. “Do you find it to your liking?” I nodded, wondering if she would have changed it if I didn't like it. Probably not. “Any other questions regarding your schedule and or curriculum?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do we take tests or exams like a regular school?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. You will take an exam at the end of each semester and you will receive a grade from A to D, similar to American grading. You will also be expected to have at least C in order to pass on both semester exams. If you don’t pass, as it is human fashion you will have to retake the year until you pass. It’s pretty simple. We don’t have that many classes and each class teaches you something important, a skill or a piece of information you must possess. All I can ask is for you to give your best and try to learn as much as you can. You are powerful supernatural, but you lack in theory.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know.” Ava leaned back on her chair and crossed her legs. Something about her gave me femme fatale vibes and for a dark second i could see red and black smoke swirling around her, smelling like death and roses. Then I blinked and it was gone. She winked at me then turned towards Ariadne.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How are we with the Council?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Still blissfully unaware that the solution to all our problems is in the academy. So far the name seems to be working. The Montgomerys are an old, respected family and they have no reason to doubt her heritage.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perfect.” Ava purred. She looked back at me and then the smoke was back. Entwined between the red and the black was a subtle pink tint, flowing around her. Again, it disappeared after I blinked. “It appears that so far your heritage remains hidden.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank God.” I mumbled, still trying to figure out the smoke, but unwilling to ask in case it was just a hallucination.”But I still don’t get why putting me on the Council now it’s such a bad idea.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ava sighed. “You’re still new to everything, I worry they might take advantage of you.” There was a sharp tint to her voice and when the smoke resurfaced again the pink was gone the black almost overpowered the red.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I was about to step on my pride and ask about the shadows when the door opened and a brunette walked in. She had piercing blue eyes and was dressed in a pair of camo shorts and a black crop top. Her waist length hair was tied in a ponytail. “Sorry to interrupt, but I brought you your files.” she told Ava her eyes quickly passing from Ava to Ariadne, to Allegra and then stopping on me. “Hi, i don’t think we’ve met. Scarlet, right?” I nodded. “I’m Mazerinne, nice to meet you.” In between blinks I caught sight of her smoke which was red and blue with a touch of black on the edges. It was gone as soon as I saw it. Mazerinne narrowed her eyes at me, but didn’t comment. I couldn’t figure out if i was supposed to say something that i didn’t and she was mad, or if she noticed i saw her smoke … thing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you Maze. Please leave them on the table. Scarlet will join you in class from tomorrow. Please make sure she’s welcome.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Certainly.” Maze said, all weariness gone from her eyes and voice. “I am very welcoming.” she added, a dirty undertone laced in her words. She winked at me and left. I heard Allegra snarl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Annoying brat.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ava laughed “Be careful, Allegra. One might think you’re jealous.” she joked, but by the way Allegra paled, it was not a funny joke. “I think it’s enough talking for today. You have the rest of the day off so I suggest you go enjoy the last rays of sunshine. I hear the wolves have prepared a hell of a party for the end of the summer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne nodded and dragged us outside, chattering excitedly about how Orion and her planned that perfect party for the end of the vacation and how it would be a perfect initiation for me as most of the students will be there. “And I have just the perfect bikini for you. There aren’t many shopping opportunities around here so I try to take advantage of the mainland trips as much as I can and usually I end up with way too many clothes. And since we’re about the same size, mine should fit you well enough until we can get you on the continent and into some shopping malls.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I shrugged. Contrary to popular opinion, I never much cared for shopping. I much prefer having Rose buy me stuff she thought was cute, rather than spend my days walking from store to store only to come out with three things because I couldn't find something I liked. It was too much of a hassle. “Okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We were walking back towards our room when Ariadne’s phone rang. “Hello?” she answered. “Yeah, I’m here. What, now? Okay, fine. Yeah, I’m coming.” she ended the call and turned to us. “Change of plans. I need to go see my mother. There’s some Council meeting and they want me to be there.” She handed me our room key and told Allegra to take me upstairs and help me choose a swimsuit for the party. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded and she left.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. interlude. in a kingdom by the sea</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“It is of no importance because we are not doing it. When I made my oath, I swore I would be fair and not succumb to your ideals and corrupt morals. So as long as I am queen, you don’t get to decide the fate of this world.”<br/>“As long as you’re queen.” Aine repeated and nobody missed the threat in her voice.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“What do you mean you can’t get an extension?” Alysse's shrill voice pierced the air, making Ariadne groan. She had been in the meeting room for over an hour now with four of the Council members and the others on a conference call. “I told you, Theo is not going on the Council. He doesn’t want to and he doesn’t have to. We’ll find someone else.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There is no someone else,” Aine, one of the eldest Council members said. She was among the ones who couldn’t stand my mother. “Unless you can pull Seraphine’s child out of your very stylish purse, Ember’s siblings are our best bet. And apart from Theo, we have no idea where the rest are. So stop this charade and get on with it. The people need results, and we intend to give them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I told you I would deliver. But I can’t do that in five fucking days.” Alysse snapped, looking at Aine like she dared to contradict her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ladies, let’s not argue.” came Aloyicius’s voice from the speaker. Ariadne hated him. He was pretentious and loved every moment we were not at peace. Peace was boring he had said. Seraphine had killed his wife so he was extra motivated to catch her. Ariadne felt bad in a way for him, for not knowing peace and not believing in it, but she still could barely put up with him. “Look, Alysse, all we’re saying is that the world is pretty much in turmoil right now. They feel like sixteen years ago when Seraphine went on a rampage. A lot of people died then and a lot of people are dying now too. We just want to help you fix things.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne scoffed. “Maybe you should attempt to fix yourselves, before you fix my mother.” she said, tired of being sidelined in that conversation. “Or did you forget why you are not currently here to present your opinion in person?” A few months ago Aloycius’s wife caught him cheating on her with a stripper. It made quite the news so Alysse had them shipped in Hawaii on a vacation to work their shit out and keep out of the media for a while. “And Marissa? How’s your child? Still dealing Venom to clueless humans in the back alleys of Las Vegas? You have no right, neither of you, to criticise my mother for her leadership when you yourselves are a thousand times more fucked than she is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alysse looked at Ariadne with something like pride in her eyes before she turned her steely gaze on the Council members that were present. “I agree that we need the ninth chair. I agree that a sibling of Ember might be our best shot since Seraphine is a descendant.  But i don’t agree that we need to rush into anything. We have time. School just started, everyone is scared and emotional. Let’s not rush into decisions that we will regret. We rushed with Seraphine and it blew in our faces. Do you really want a repeat?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everyone nodded and murmured their consent except Aine. Ariadne narrowed her eyes at her, but Aine simply smiled and gave a delicate shrug. After that, Alysse called the meeting to an end and the Council members cleared out. All except Aine. “Alysse, you know I want what’s best for the people. I am on your side. That’s why, now that everyone left, I wanted to ask you to give my idea another thought.” Alysse raised her eyes from her phone and blinked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Excuse me? I already said no. We are not doing that!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne blinked in confusion at the two women. She had no idea what plan Aine was talking about and she did not appreciate being kept in the dark. “What plan? What do you want to do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aine just smiled. “Your mother knows.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is of no importance because we are not doing it. When I made my oath, I swore I would be fair and not succumb to your ideals and corrupt morals. So as long as I am queen, you don’t get to decide the fate of this world.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As long as you’re queen.” Aine repeated and nobody missed the threat in her voice. It made Ariadne so incredibly angry, she could barely think straight. She really despised that woman.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tread very carefully, Aine.” Ariadne warned her trying to keep as much venom out of her voice as she could. “One might think you just threatened my mother’s positions as queen and you know how intolerant we are to treason.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aine smiled innocently at the two women. “Far from it, my darling. I happen to like Alysse on the throne. I just fear that not everybody shares my opinion.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It better be that way.” Ariadne could feel her body heat up in response to her anger and she forced herself to calm down. The last thing her mother needed was for Ariadne to start shooting fireballs at her Council members, especially since fire is not even her declared element. She watched Aine retreat carefully and then stared at her mother. She still had no idea what Aine planned, but her feeling of foreboding persisted throughout the entire meeting. The bad news was that even though Alysse was queen, she had to step back and bow down if the Council unanimously decided on something.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. nameless here for evermore</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>“Wake up!” I screamed, clapping my hands around their heads to get them to rise. Ariadne groaned something that sounded way too much like a very original curse, but Allegra got up almost immediately. “Come on, it’s time for school.” I said to Ariadne trying to get her to wake up.<br/>“Great, another excited one.” she mumbled while getting up.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>First day of school was never fun. Whoever enjoyed their first day in that hole of despair was a psychopath in my book. However, for me this wasn’t a normal first day. Why? Because I was in a high tech, high powered, richer, cooler version of Hogwarts and I was actually excited to start learning. It was a weird feeling, but not altogether unpleasant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After waking up before my alarm and taking the quickest shower in my history of showering, I got out and dressed in the uniform that had been left at the foot of my bed by someone. It consisted of a dark purple polo shirt, a black mini pleated skirt, a black blazer and a pair of black flats. Ariadne and Allegra had similar outfits thrown haphazardly around the room only their shirts had different colors. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wake up!” I screamed, clapping my hands around their heads to get them to rise. Ariadne groaned something that sounded way too much like a very original curse, but Allegra got up almost immediately. “Come on, it’s time for school.” I said to Ariadne trying to get her to wake up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great, another excited one.” she mumbled while getting up. Allegra took the first shower while Ari searched for her clothes in the pile that was threatening to suffocate the chair they were on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually, we were ready. Allegra led us through more hallways until we reached a suspiciously open plane that could not mathematically exist with the way the academy plans were currently made. I raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment. It was a magical school after all. I followed the girls to an open room filled with the most high tech science equipment i have ever seen. It looked worthy of a futuristic research facility that discovered a cure for cancer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The layout was similar to a typical lab in school with three person benches and a desk up front for the teacher. Each desk had a tablet, a stack of paper and a pencil case in front of every chair. “This looks expensive.” I commented, pointing towards the tablets. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s an expensive school.” Ariadne said. “Come, our seats are up front.” she continued, guiding us to the front of the classroom. Most seats were already filled and everybody was staring at me. Considering I was supposed to keep a low profile and not reveal my true identity, that was not such a good thing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is a very strange school.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, and you haven’t seen half.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello, class.” I heard from behind me and my vision went black for a second as a wave of heat passed through my body. I shuddered. Ariadne, who sat next to me, grinned. “Welcome to Chemistry. This is where you will learn how to save or take a life most efficiently using only what nature gives you as your weapons. My name is Theo Richards and for those of you who are new, I am an incubus. I am assuming all of you know what that is by now so i will not bother to explain. Let’s get to business, shall we? Those of you who have been here the previous year and are already tested, raise your hands.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tested?” I asked Ariadne. “What test?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Every student takes a test at the beginning of the year that declared his temporary power level depending on what they are and how well they control their magic. It’s kind of a grade, only you get it at the beginning of the year because our lessons and exams are personalized for each power level. They go from two to six.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I opened my mouth to ask something else, but Theo finished his sorting and looked at us again. “A bit of organisation trivia; the test will be held in two days and presence is mandatory. There are no failures. Everyone gets a level and we will work from that point on. So, no need to worry. Okay, now that that is over and done with, since for some of you it’s your first time here, we will start with an introductory lesson just to get you all acquainted or reacquainted with the subject. For starters, each potion, poison or antidote has several variants based off of every supernatural being that exists. Something that works on vampires, won’t work on werewolves and vice versa.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because our DNA is different and as such, our vulnerabilities and strengths are also different.” a blonde butted in. Her hair was tied in a ponytail and her shirt was red.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Patricia. That is correct.” Theo said, although he didn’t seem very excited for the interruption. “Now, I want you to erase everything you knew about potions and stuff like that out of your mind. What we’re doing here is not run of the mill movie magic. There are no cauldrons, no wands, just plain old test tubes and Bunsen burners.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A very strange school.” I felt the need to repeat. Ariadne nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s take me for example. I am sure there was at least one moment in your experience with me that you wanted to murder me.” the class laughed, but there was also a charged tone, vibrating under my skin coming off of my classmates and for the first time i realized i was sitting amongst predators and while i was supposed to be powerful, i had no idea how to control it. “Succubus and incubus blood is especially potent in spells and very alluring to vampires and werewolves.” I felt more than saw three heads turn towards me when Theo said that and sweat broke over my skin. Ariadne’s hand snaked in my lap and grabbed mine, squeezing it gently before giving me a smile and a wink. It lessened the bear trap my heart was caught in. “We are emotion-based beings which means the best course of action would be a poison that blocks emotion receptors, effectively stopping me from being able to absorb emotion and starving me to death. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The biogenic amines are the most known group of neurotransmitters that generate the most important chemicals that aid succubi and incubi: dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. Dopamine is the brain’s natural reward system. Norepinephrine is also known as adrenaline and is associated with the risk-taking activities. And serotonin is linked to sleep, hunger and sexual activity. Take a chemical that attacks all three and you’re golden.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is that chemical?” Patricia asked, eyes glinting with something that made my hair stand up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Something many of you might know.“ Theo continued, ignoring Patricia, “A few years ago, Ava created a poison that works specifically against succubi and incubi. It has elements from five different viruses, one of them being a rhinovirus, which causes the fever in the common cold. It spreads stupidly easy through air contact and acts in minutes, leaving the succubus or the incubus affected to starve and die alone. Hence the name, Project Oubliette. In the past it was used against Lilith, but unfortunately it wasn’t strong enough to subdue her, only her acolites. Because of how dangerous it is, the project was scrapped and the virus destroyed. The reason I’m telling you this is because I need you to realize the effects of what we are doing here. We are not making colourful fire or changing liquid to gas. It’s not highschool. The things we create here can and will kill you if you don’t pay attention.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I frowned. There was something that didn’t add up for me. Ava seemed way too smart to risk such a dangerous thing like the Oubliettes ending up in the wrong hands just for a small chance of it working on Lilith. It seemed like such a newbie mistake. I wanted to go and ask her, but I wasn't sure what ‘getting out of class’ protocols Avalon had. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now let’s move on to our canine friends.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The rest of the class passed in a blurry haze of associating different chemicals with different species. I filled out four pages of notes and Theo had us download three books from the school website and highlight passages to learn by next class. “Okay.” Theo said at the end of the class while we were packing. “Remember, level testing is on the fourth, eight o'clock in the evening. Don’t be late. Bye bye.” he finished, waving cheerfully. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is there some kind of werewolf/vampire rivalry going on between succubi and incubi?” i asked after i noticed that Theo was obviously avoiding me every time he got anywhere close to looking in my direction. It still didn’t cool off the heat i felt every time i looked at him for more than a few seconds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariadne frowned. “No, your kind sticks close together. There are very few of you left and because of that you tend to stay hidden. It’s very rare to see a succubus in one of our schools. At first I thought your kind didn’t really like school, but then I found out the real reason.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because we’re endangered?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what kind likes school?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seelies.” Allegra groaned. “They love learning and knowing things.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They seem nice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ari laughed humorlessly. “They are anything, but nice. The Seelies are the children of angels and demons and the first race of mixed supernaturals to appear. They are even older than the Nephilim. Three things you need to know about them: never allow them to do something for you in exchange for a favor, never lie to them and if they ask to take you to the Seelie Lands, refuse. No matter what. It’s damn near impossible to escape and if you do escape, you’re never the same.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, I get the lying and the Lands, but what about the favors?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Owing a favor to a Seelie is binding. If you don’t word the favor correctly you end up at the mercy of the Seelie that holds your favor. Seelies can’t lie so over time they became exceptionally good at loopholes. Trust me, you don’t want to do it.” I wondered if she owed a favor to a Seelie and that’s why she felt so strongly about this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, got it. Seelies, bad. What else is there?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There are witches, who use the power of magical stones and amulets to perform spells. There are Elementalists who are basically half demons who control different elements; usually just one or two at most. Mermaids control water, can breathe underwater and swim really fast. And no, before you ask, they don’t grow tails and we only have a few here. They go for blue hair and sea-related accessories so you’ll be able to easily tell them apart. They’re pretty chill and nice, only tend to get distracted easily. But once they get to know you, if they like you, they’re pretty loyal. Then there are the different types of high level half demons, like necromancers, shadow demons. And that’s pretty much the gist of it. Of course there’s a lot of mixing and matching, but these are the main ones.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Got it.” I said as we entered the History class. “Let me guess, here we learn about myths and legends.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Precisely, only for us it’s just our history. You will see that many myths are actually pretty close to the real thing, but with small differences that make it a little bit more fictional and a little harder for humans to truly  believe in them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While the Chem lab was high tech, the History classroom had a retro-chic feel to it complete with a yellowed map on the wall and a gramophone in a corner. There were fewer students in that classroom, but, predictably, all turned to stare at me as I passed them to sit in the front of the class. I pulled out my papers, pencil case and tablet and waited for our teacher to arrive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lara showed up five minutes later, carrying a tripod whiteboard and three books. “Hello, class.” she chirped, barely visible behind the whiteboard. She looked at least four inches shorter than me. She sat on top of her desk and pulled the whiteboard next to her. “My name is Lara and i am your history teacher. Because this year we have many new people that have been raised in the human world, Ava figured an introductory lesson in world history might be a good choice for a first lesson. I’m sure by now all of you know exactly what kind of supernatural beings there are in the world. There’s the core three, angels, demons and witches. Then all the variations, vampires, werewolves, succubi, incubi, elementali, seelies and so on. We call this, ourselves khiraj. But, if you’re up to date with your mythology,  there are other things out there then just us. Gods, demigods, spirits, muses, Fates, things like that also exist. To explain things in a way for you to understand, imagine every world there is there, the human world, the khiraj world, all the other world as parallel dimensions, that exist in the same space as we do, but not everyone can access them. The asathi, which are the mythological beings cannot cross into our dimension and we cannot cross in theirs. The only beings that can cross, are primordial ones. For us, it means the top three, angels, demons and witches. Obviously you need a lot of power so even among them, not everybody can pass. But they have the possibility. For the ashati, it means the primordial gods, the titans and the olympians.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now, between the khiraj and the ashati was always a deep seated hatred because of the difference in beliefs and therefore, every time something major happened, like a plague or something like that it became the norm to blame the others. Naturally, the newer generation don’t really do this anymore and we’ve been working on establishing a sort of a peace treaty between khiraj and ashati, but it’s been proven quite difficult. The border lines being uncrossable make it harder. But, considering all of the things that happened recently in our world will eventually reflect on the other worlds as well, our full cooperation is required.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something that Ava wanted me to make sure you learn is that under no circumstances, should you ever attempt to cross the border into the ashati dimension. Even if you somehow find it, attempting to cross it without having the right to do so will pulverize you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We all nodded to that even though my curiosity had been picked. I loved the greek and egyptian mythologies more than I loved God and angels and demons. They were a million times more interesting to me. When I found out that magic was real, I hoped the gods were too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>We spent the rest of the hour with Lara telling us differences between reality and myths and explaining what mythological creatures were real and what weren’t. It was a fairly interesting lecture, unlike normal people History lessons, which were boring and forgettable. I took a lot of notes, preparing for what looked like a weekend full of reading. I have yet to check out the Avalon library, but I'm assuming it was extensive and I was so behind everyone, it was painful. I needed to catch up and catch up fast.  </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Leave a comment and tell me what you think :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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